Guys, my wife is the Captain of two different teams. Team Japan, which is the Japanese National fly fishing team, and Team WFFJ which is a team made up of members of World Fly Fishing of Japan, which is a fly fishing and conservation club which she formed in 2000, from which she culls members from, for both teams. The difference is, to be a member of Team Japan, one has to be a Japanese citizen and have a Japanese passport. But, all you need to do to be a member of Team WFFJ is be a member of WFFJ. Team Japan goes to the World Fly Fishing Championship and Conservation Sympoisum in whatever country it is being held each year, and Team WFFJ has been doing this tournament in 2008 and 2010.
http://www.theamericacup.com
Last year, Misako and i worked with Tenkara Dio, (means King of Tenkara), Dr. Ishigaki and Daniel (can't remember his last name, but he's the owner of Tenkara U.S.A., on a film, all about Tenkara fishing here in the Catskills. The DVD is out now and i think you can purchase it through Tenkara U.S.A.
Dr. Ishigaki is a world renowned athority all about Tenkara (and by the way he prefers to use a Level Line), and has written a few books all about it. He used my vise and tools and materials to do a demonstration all about how to tye the flies, at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum, after which Misako acted as his interperture as he did a power point presentation all about Tenkara fly fishing, and then he took the crowd down to the river to demonstrate. We had expected that maybe 50 people would show up for this event. Well a crowd of 150 showed up.
It was amazing how much interest there was/is in Tenkara. And i must tell you, it IS a LOT of fun. We took Tenkara Dio and Daniel all over the Catskills, to shoot the film, and in fact Dr. Ishigaki caught 7 Brookies right behind our house in Roscoe. My pay for the week, one Tenkara fly rod, one Tenkara T-Shirt, and one Tenkara U.S.A. hat.
OH! and one hell of a good time.
Misako and i fish the Crooked Creek often with our Tenkara rods and have a BALL! In fact when a free lance reporter from the N.Y. Times came to interview us for an article, all the way down in Arkansas, we took him Tenkara fishing on the Crooked, and he caught fish all day. You can go to the Times website and find that ariticle in the archives.
We just did the FFF Florida Council Conclave back on Oct. 22nd and 23rd, at which time Misako tyed Tenkara flies in her hands with no bobbin, or bobbin holder and no vise. As you know they are very simple to tye. Misako is in Japan at the moment having both WFFJ and Team Japan annual meetings, and she is fishing exclusively with her Tenkara rod on a fishing trip with WFFJ members. i just passed out quite few of her flies at a show i just did this past weekend in Danbury, Conn. for the CFFC&M. If you've never tried Tenkara, do so. You'll LOVE it. Ya just gotta be ready to run with the fish occassionally, if he's a big un.
Tenkara is over 400 yrs. old, and it was not invented for big rivers or big fish.....but hey, why not.
Actually when Tenkara was perfected it was stricktly a way for fisherman to feed their families. And not only to do that it was also a way of making a living. Tenkara fisherman, sold their catch at market. Amazingly, those very same rivers were not fished out, and today still hold good populations of wild fish, both Iwana and Yamami.
